MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A Martinsburg man will serve life in prison for the beating death of his wife after being sentenced Friday in Berkeley County Circuit Court.
Earlier this year a jury convicted Rickie Greenfield, Junior of first-degree murder without mercy for using a hammer to kill his wife Jill in Aug. 2013.
“That was the outcome we were looking for and that was the outcome at the end of the jury verdict,” Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said Friday.
Games-Neely said the trial was for the most part straight forward, but pointed out that the defense changed position midstream.
The prosecution called witnesses who pointed toward a failed marriage.
The defense claimed Greenfield’s crime met the threshold for voluntary manslaughter, not murder.